I bought my UV3R about 18 months ago, mainly for it's small size, my club organise the UK's biggest hamfest, so UHF comms is needed, and this little radio, fitted with a one inch antenna fits in my shirt pocket nicely. Quality wise, it's a step up from the Baofeng ( Which I also own), battery life is not as good though, but enough for 12hrs use at the hamfest without dying. Audio is more than loud enough on RX, and all reports of TX audio have been good. A nice touch is being able to programme repeater callsigns and channel names in without having to connect it to a PC, indeed, I programmed all my local repeaters, marine band and PMR channels manually, a bit of a chore, but it does make you learn your way around the radio!
I have 3 hand-held V/UHF radios, and as long as 2w will do, the UV3R is my first choice, only lost a point for battery life!

Although I think this tiny handheld is a wonderful piece of ham equipment to own, due to it's size especially. I've tested many handhelds and this one meets mostly all my needs, except one. For some strange reason, I'm not able to receive broadcasts as if they're squelched out. When depressing the monitor switch on the side, I'm able to adjust the volume and hear other stations. Is there a function I seem to have missed on this one...PUZZLED!

Having had the Baofeng UV-3R for several years, this radio was a surprise. I lost the Baofeng somewhere....probably shipped out with garbage as my charging stand was over the trash can...

So why not try a new radio? This came from 409shop on ebay for about $50 Canadian and arrived 10 days later. Like the Baofeng, it uses cheap cell-phone batteries and can be charged from a USB port. Almost exactly the same size as the Baofeng, it came with an equally useless belt-clip. Mine will go in a buttoned shirt-pocket. The antenna is actually halfway decent.

I was somewhat disappointed that the radio did not have DTMF. It had buttons, after all! These only serve to enter frequencies directly. Had to spend an additional $16 on a USB programming cable. Programming is easy, rudimentary, but nothing to write home about. You can listen on one band and transmit on another. No crossband repeater function at this price. 220mHz frequencies can be programmed, and the band suppression on the TYT is not as severe as it is on the Baofeng. But best of all, it has a nice, legible readout with six-place alphanumerics.

As for complaints about battery drain when turned off, any radio that doesn't go "click" when you turn it on is in effect always on, including the Baofeng UV-3R. My only complaint about radios this small it that the loudspeaker is basically just a tweeter. The squelch tails on tweeters are way louder than the modulated signals.

It works. Does everything I want and does it cheap without feeling cheap. You can't lose on this one. 73

Nice small HT however when placed on my HP service monitor the high power output was 0.9 Watts not 2.0 Watts as advertised. I suspected this because of the cellular telephone like battery since those devices are less than 1 Watt. Receiver sensitivity was very good around -120 dBm as advertised and a lot of audio for its size. The knob on the top is for multiple functions with its primary 2 being on/off switch and frequency. Operation of using it in conjunction black side button for volume is a bit awkward because the it cannot be changed "on-the-fly" like with most HTs. If you looking for a pocket size HT to use at hamfests or other events this might be the one for you. Just remember if you attend an event like Dayton Hamvention you will most likely get clobbered by all the RF as like all the low-cost Chinese radios this one has wide receiver selectivity even narrow band mode. One last comment the programming software for this radio is the 20121019101555204_R25.rar not the one found on most US web sites. The original _R version gives the impression you cable is not working by the error msg. Also you need something like WinZip to unbundle it. I am looking at various radios for the new people in our club and this one is more advanced to use than the other brands especially since its Chinglish manual is in comprehensible at times even to me with land mobile radio experience. 73 and good luck.

The strong asset of this radio is its small size. In comparison with the BaoFeng UV-3r this radio is more polished with a number of added features. If you are not very excited about the small size, I think there are better choices. I find that I use my UV-5r more than either the TYT or the BaoFeng UV-3r. The TYT eats batteries even when it is turned off. I find that the UV-5r meets my day to day needs better for battery and operational convenience.

It's still a pretty cool little, low-powered HT. The open source Chirp software is a HUGE improvement. Chirp is very easy to use and transfers data between different radios. I don't like the digital "stepped" audio on the radio, seems like it's either a little too soft or too loud. I mostly listen with it, but can hit area repeaters.

The battery will run down even if the radio is off. If must use a "soft" power switch. Charging time is somewhat slow. I bought a couple Nokia BL-6C batteries (made for a cell phone) from eBay cheap and it's not a problem now. Using it with one battery IS a problem.

In summary, with upgraded free software and a spare battery, the radio is fun and is working FB.

After several months of light use I found that the transceiver is depleting the battery when not in use for few weeks, I have not messured how long it takes. (The same as Puxing-888). The ratting drops at 4.

low cost, heard can be 2m 220 and 440. have not found anything saying fcc approved. was not able to program without getting the special cable. Recommend: download and read the manual (for free) first. If it all make sense to you then give it a try. Having the rig in my hand did not help it make sense to me and the online forum was not much help. seems to function ok but for me not intuitive, and found i have seldom used it.

I bought this radio used at a local hamfest just to see what a $60 radio could do. And I am surprised to say that I am very happy with it. While there are a couple functions that are not very well explained in the manual, overall the programming is logical and fairly easy to figure out. Having the programming software and cable makes it even easier.

The receive audio is clear and can be reasonably loud. On my radio at least, the lowest volume setting is about the lowest I would ever need it. The transmit audio sounds good as well, and I like the compander feature, which compresses the audio. This makes mic placement less critical.

Plusses:

1. Nice, well lit display (although it is a little difficult to distinguish a "0" from an "8".

3. Number keys allow direct frequency input as well as providing direct feature entry. The second function of each number key is silkscreened on each key.

4. Decent battery life (> one day scanning and receive only).

5. Wide frequency range includes the FRS channels.

Minuses:

1. Single knob for volume and frequency is cumbersome and the detents are a bit stiff.

2. Side buttons (needed to access volume function) are stiffer than they need to be.

3. While most of the display is pretty good, the indicator showing which band is currently receiving is tiny and hard to see.

4. The programming software works fine but is pretty minimal. You cannot copy and paste large number of frequencies at the same time. You cannot move frequencies around. When programming repeaters, you have to manually enter the transmit frequency.... it is not calculated from the receive frequency and an offset.

5. The programming cable plugs into the radio's USB port but it is actually a USB to serial cable. Not a problem, except you have to figure out what com port it is emulating to set up the programming software... and this changes if you move it to a different USB port on your PC.

6. The speaker has a slight rattle at anything more than quiet room volume.

Yes, the minus column seems longer than the plus column ;) But I still find this a surprisingly good value for the money. If you are looking for a tiny dual band HT, this is not a bad choice.

I have the 2 meter/222 MHz version. The full keypad makes programming easier than the original UV-3R, and the antenna seems better than other small radios. Programming is way ahead of other Chinese radios, and the instructions are written better than other manuals. The FM is usable but not great. For the mid $50's price, it is a very good bargain. The USB charge using a standard mini cable is a great idea. The only improvement for me would be to have 440 MHz too.